July 14, 2006

A cautionary tale

Joseph was born into the Klan. He hated blacks with every fiber of his being. It was their fault his family no longer owned the fields west of the river. What ownership his family had ever exercised was tenuous, and unclear, but it was those uppitty blacks that caused the misery in Jimtown. According to family legend, all was right with the world before the war, in those times (long before Joseph was born), the "niggras" knew their place, Joseph was told by his Grandfather.

Joseph had a sign in his yard, proclaiming that it would be unwise for persons of color to be near his property after sunset. The sign was phrased in a manner more crude. Joseph was very religious. He read his Bible every day, he knew his beliefs were in line with Scripture. He could quote passages defending his position. He went to Church, attended the Klan meetings and spent his days building hate through discussions with his neighbors, who felt just as he did. Occasionally the Nazi symbol or flag could be seen in their pamphlets and newspapers. The church school taught the children about the sins and evil nature of the darkies across the river. Religious text was preached proving Blacks carried the mark of Cain, they were subhuman, they deserved to die. Joseph believed he was doing God's work every time he beat a Black child. His greatest dream was to go across the river and kill as many blacks as possible.

"They" were strange and evil, believed Joseph. There were whispered rumors about them eating babies, and trying to seduce the women of Jimtown. Once Joseph and his friends blew up a restaurant over the river because he had heard one of "them" had looked the wrong way at a neighbor's wife. Joseph was not going to put up with that kind of disrespect.

Most of us would find Joseph repugnant, a relic of a bygone era. His thoughts, his religion, his hatred an anethema to us all. What if we replaced every reference to Black, etc. with Jew? What if Joseph was really Yassar? What if his "Bible" was the Koran? This is the hatred of the Palestinians. This is the hatred of a wide sect of Muslims. This is what the liberals are supporting when they give money and support to Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority or the PLO. There is no cure for hatred. There is no cure for those too stupid to recognize it.